Essay about Deep Ecology

This New York Times article discusses the ideas of Paul Ehrlich on population and the environment. Although Ehrlich often resorted to dramatizations and apocalypse-type imagery in his writings, they often had some very poignant objective. Ehrlich discussed the “Population Bomb”, the idea that population was rising so rapidly, that widespread famine would soon be an issue for millions of people. As we saw, no such event occurred, but Ehrlich still firmly believes measures should be taken to limit population growth such as “tax benefits for having additional children” and taxes on childcare items such as diapers and strollers. These proposals and ideas remain highly controversial, as they were in the 1970’s and continue to create a stir even

Pollution has become a serious political issue. Humans that live among nature prevent damaging effects like pollution from occurring because nature is their habitat that they want to protect. This simple difference in lifestyle and in attitude already majorly distinguishes the two groups of humans. Ego is not the only factor in destruction, however. The lack of awareness about the consequences of destruction of nature causes destruction of nature. Well-known consequences like pollution exist, but there are some that are not as obvious. In the Indian fable “Numskull and Rabbit ”, the forest creatures describe how the lion’s murderous nature is not only ending lives, but is also preventing the birth of future lives as a result. An example of this mass destruction is evident in the second image from the movie, where cages full of jailed chickens that are hoarded like they are just objects are about to become poultry for human sustenance . Core principles of evolution state that reproduction of a species is imperative to their survival. If a species has a reduction in population, then the food chain becomes unbalanced, which can impact many species negatively. Humans who live among nature are more aware of their environment and how it impacts their lifestyles, so they are more careful in making sure that they do not injure its natural order. The destruction of nature is caused by simple

Population Growth is an issue that exists in today’s world that needs to be confronted before it becomes out of hand. The population itself has reached overwhelming numbers making it a problem that could turn to be dangerous. The amount of humans that the earth can support or the carrying capacity is slowly rising but at a much slower rate than the population growth rate. The increasing growth rate has its negative effects environmentally, agriculturally, socially, and economically and also has its positive effects nationally, and economically. The government is brainstorming and trying to come up with ways to decrease

The audience of this book is presumed to be the general person who is not fully intact with the ideas that he or she is disrupting the ecosystem and is not aware of the effects they are doing as a whole. The book argues that no ecosystem is completely inert as things such as climate changes or drought can also affect the enviorment. Without human interaction an environment can still have issues, but the introduction of human life and economy does take a grave toll on the climate. These are irreversible effects that mankind are doing to the ecosystem. The English

The sad injustice to nature is that man has forgotten the biotic connection between the natural world and humanity. Whether protecting nature is a spiritual experience or simply a means for survival, nature is as much a part of human life as the human themselves. The separation created by modern environmentalism between human and non-human entities can only be reunited if people learn to view life as a part of nature. The scary part about that thought, however, is will that be enough now? Only time can

When it comes to nature everyone has their own personal experience that either made them appreciate the worlds beauty a little more or transformed them from the inside out, yet humans have long been blamed for the destruction of everything wild. What is it about nature that William Mckibben describes in his book End of Nature which makes us “think of people as small and the world as large” and how did this change to where “the opposite has become the truth.” (Mckibben XV) Humans have put their fingerprints all over the natural world and made it to where they demand control of it all, instead of nature demanding to control man. This inclination for humans to think they can make nature whatever they want it to be becomes an issue that must be tackled at a global scale, starting with each individual’s treatment of nature. The end of nature predicted by Mckibben occurs when we ignore the warning signs that are glaring right at us, and choose to not

These days, we have a serious problem along with the population growth. Overpopulation causes lots of different impacts on earth. One major problem is pollution that people make. I feel very sorry for our planet since I was more likely to participate in the works that might cause the earth sick. However, I am now concerned about our climate changes which are the result of our human activities. Also, I decided to change my lifestyle as an eco-friendly person after reading articles from two different authors. The articles, “I am the Population Problem” by Lisa Hymas and “Meet my Kid, an Adorable Environmental Disaster” by Jeff Feldman, share some similar basic ideas while they have some key differences. Both Hymas and Feldman

Main Point 1: According to Richard Fuller, a system theorist, “Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.”written on

Background: Every ecological system provides multiple services for the organisms that live in that specific ecosystem. Some more than others, depending on the biome and health of the environment. One of its roles serve to act as a resource base, available to all nearby organisms for survival purposes. This "resource base" is finite, however. When not used wisely, resources will most often deplete dangerously quickly, resulting in irreversible reduction of something we call "carrying capacity" of a population(s) (Arrow, 92). Carrying capacity, denoted as “K” is not limited to animals in a forest, or sea creatures in an ocean; it exists for microscopic cells, as well. The factors involved in affecting the carrying capacity of an animal population are very similar to the factors for cells, and the curve on a graph showing values of K behaves identically, for the most part, to cell populations as well.

Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher and the founding editor of the journal Inquiry authored and published a paper in Inquiry "The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement" in 1973, which was the beginning of the deep ecology movement. Important writers in this movement include George Sessions, Bill DeVall, Warwick Fox, and, in some respects, Max Oelschlaeger.

Another adjustment to the microscope, and we can examine Leopold's biocentric opinion of how environmental ethics should be governed. His approach enlarges the moral category to include soils, waters, plants and animals and claims our obligation is to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. Philosophers Devall and Sessions further define the biocentric view with the concept of deep ecology. Devall and Sessions argue that "the well-being and flourishing of human and non-human life have value in themselves. These values are independent of the usefulness of the non-human world for human purposes." (503)

White’s thesis in The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis states that in order to confront the expanding environmental crises, humans must begin to analyze and alter their treatment and attitudes towards nature. The slow destruction of the environment derives from the Western scientific and technological advancements made since the Medieval time period. “What people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them” (RON p.7). Technology and science alone will not be able to save humans until we adjust the way of thinking and suppress the old ideas of humans power above nature. Instead, we need to learn how to think of ourselves as being

The connection between humans and nature is very weak. Due to future advancement we are basically losing our grip on reality, which brings up the point of destruction to nature that we are not aware of. At one point in time nature was the most beautiful thing you could ever witness. Now people exploit it for money. They are selling land, resources, even water for a profit. They don’t think twice or blink an eye at the damage they cause. The disconnect is so huge the debate of protecting the earth is treated as a forbidden topic. “Second, environmental injustices critics challenge the mainstream environmental idea of what environmental problems are in the first place. They say its focused on the beautiful outdoors, it has anti-urban bias, it isn’t engaged enough with artificial human environments like neighborhoods and workplaces” (Purdy 4) That just baffles me how you can turn the place we call home and the wellness of it to a political debate when all we should want to do is preserve it.

Hartmann states, " Affluence has more to do with the depletion of natural resources than does population size" because similarly to the issue of food distribution, too few people consume too much of the world 's energy, metals and wood (Hartmann 1995: 23). For this reason, " on a global level, it simply does not make sense to blame environmental degradation on population growth" (Hartmann 1995: 23); consumption patterns illustrate that one group of people are obviously creating the damage, and that group is not the "overpopulated" nations of the Global South. Hartmann explains that the goal of achieving a Western lifestyle, which necessitates environmental exploitation, cannot become a reality for a global population of this size but that the globe does have the ability to support every life on the plant. She is effectively calling into question the notion that a Western existence is inherently desirable and better, forcing people to examine if they cry "overpopulation" as a way of protecting their extravagant and environmentally harmful existences. This connects to the final overpopulation myth, analyzed here, which paints the developing world 's inability to reach Western levels of economic growth on their growing population size.

Deep ecology is more meditative and goes beyond the factual scientific level, to the level of self and Earth wisdom. It goes beyond a shallow approach to environmental problems. It articulates a comprehensive religious and philosophical worldview, along with ecological consciousness.